{"product_id":"good-soldier-svejk","title":"Good Soldier Svejk","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe inspiration for such works as Joseph Heller's \u003ci\u003eCatch-22\u003c\/i\u003e, Jaroslav Hašek's black satire \u003ci\u003eThe Good Soldier Švejk\u003c\/i\u003e is translated with an introduction by Cecil Parrott in Penguin Classics.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGood-natured and garrulous, Švejk becomes the Austro-Hungarian army's most loyal Czech soldier when he is called up on the outbreak of the First World War - although his bumbling attempts to get to the front serve only to prevent him from reaching it. Playing cards, getting drunk and becoming a general nuisance, the resourceful Švejk uses all his natural cunning and genial subterfuge to deal with the doctors, police, clergy and officers who chivvy him towards battle. The story of a 'little man' caught in a vast bureaucratic machine, \u003ci\u003eThe Good Soldier Švejk\u003c\/i\u003e combines dazzling wordplay and piercing satire to create a hilariously subversive depiction of the futility of war.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCecil Parrott's vibrant, unabridged and unbowdlerized translation is accompanied by an introduction discussing Hašek's turbulent life as an anarchist, communist and vagranty, and the Everyman character of Švejk. This edition also includes a guide to Czech names, maps and original illustrations by Josef Ladas.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJaroslav Hašek (1883-1923) Besides this book, the writer wrote more than 2,000 short works, short stories, glosses, sketches, mostly under various pen-names.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIf you enjoyed \u003ci\u003eThe Good Soldier Švejk\u003c\/i\u003e, you might like Mikhail Bulgakov's \u003ci\u003eThe Master and Margarita\u003c\/i\u003e, also available in Penguin Classics.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Brilliant ... perhaps the funniest novel ever written'\u003cbr\u003eGeorge Monbiot\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Hašek was a comic genius'\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Hašek was a humorist of the highest calibre....A later age will perhaps put him on a level with Cervantes and Rabelais' \u003cbr\u003eMax Brod\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Books Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54252910969176,"sku":"9780140449914","price":18.5,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9780140449914_17de77d6-a950-46d8-a66b-7576d026db7f.jpg?v=1777113010","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/good-soldier-svejk","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}